Girls Gone Canon Cast - ASOIAF Episode 224 — ADWD The Blind Girl

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

New POV: Blind Beth. Join us as we follow a day in the life of a girl at the House of Black and White with weird dreams and who gets along really, really well with cats. Check us out on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/girlsgonecanon.bsky.social --- Eliana's twitter: https://twitter.com/arhythmetric Eliana's reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/glass_table_girl Eliana's blog: https://themanyfacedblog.wordpress.com/ Chloe's twitter: https://twitter.com/liesandarbor Chloe's blog: liesandarborgold.com Intro by Anton Langhage

Hello, and welcome to Girls Gone Canon Reads A Song Of Ice And Fire, episode 224 the blind girl in a dance with dragons i am one of your hosts chloe and i am another one of your hosts eliana and are you ready for this new pov once again we have another new pov this week it's the blind girl who is she who is she i don't know yeah blind bath right got that alliteration going on. She's it. She's hip. Things change fast around here. Lots of POVs in one. You're all very welcome.

She is hip. She's wearing those two-tone socks. Different colors on each side. That's so in. It's actually very out, which is what makes it so in interesting is it out right now it's out it's out no i'm just kidding it's in it's in i don't know what's in i don't know what's out i don't do fashion i'm wearing a shirt with a bear on it that says

something about hibernating yeah it's not a going out shirt you know I have a face for podcasts so yeah we believe girls should be heard and not seen it's the podcast girls should be heard and not seen well this month for patrons in the stranger tier and above girls are going to be seen and by girls we mean mercy

and the winds of winter we are going to be covering the winds of winter we are gonna be covering the winds of winter mercy because yes this is our penultimate aria chapter technically right in our main a dance with dragons that's so sad published povs yeah it's over but there's a new pov to come so stay tuned stay tuned yeah that's so sad that really b bums me out. I love the Arya chapters. What a blast. What a time we had. They've been dark, but they've been pure at the same time. They've been a little bit of everything. aria chapters in the first three books and then like what a roller coaster from storm up until the end of aria's chapters you know there's only five from there on life comes at you fast i look forward to the winds of winter because it seems like we're gonna start off a little oh yeah right

shut up i swear to god you're the only one i think we're gonna start off you know a little dark for aria but i i look forward to seeing where that takes us if it gets us kind of to a lighter place yeah i don't know i look forward to exploring that when it does come out like all the other chapters that yes i also want those yeah i was like wow i i too am looking forward to the winds of winter and You all might not know this. Maybe no one knows this about any of us. Well, something else to look forward to is this month's brunch, which if you are listening to this in real time, it is tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, it's tomorrow, which is a patron holiday for 420, April 20th. Yeah. Yeah, brunch is a really fun event. Brappy hour for our patrons in the Thunder tier and up. Every month we do a little brunch to get together. Couple of hours, just some pals. We're palling around tomorrow at 2 p.m. till probably about 4 p.m.

So come hang, E.T. We are palling around. Our friend Pete, who helped us with his Dark Materials coverage, just floated, like, what if we did presentations again for 420? So we'll see. We'll see. That's illegal. Presentations.

Yeah, that's true. Doing presentations on 420? Nerds. Says the podcaster that does a book report every week. New meaning to PowerPoint potluck. Hmm. Get it? Ha! Ha! Okay. new meaning to uh powerpoint potluck get it okay well other news of things to look forward to in terms of timing as of us recording this guess what finally we have a date for house of the dragon release i think we probably did last episode whatever so. So it is coming out June 16th.

We are working on our schedule. We are. We have some really exciting stuff that we are trying to get ramped up for this season. It's going to be sick. Shit's going to be popping. Yeah, the D will be unleashed. I'm hearing this is a thing that's being said. Yes.

And I look forward to our Hot D schedule release it's coming I mean you're gonna get it soon you're gonna get our Hot D our Hot D is coming coming oh my god it's all coming to you please stay tuned in the next couple of weeks you should have

a picture of what's to come for the season and a reminder we will be pausing the POV podcast during hot D season. On account of last year, we did not. And we learned. We learned. Yeah, we... Okay, that was like rough on our bodies, on our minds, and...

Our spirits. Yeah, our spirit. As we age, I have even less of all of those things. And so I must be strategic in where the energy goes. And I would really love to give you all great hot D coverage. So yes, agreed, agreed. It'll be better for you guys. Yeah, the higher quality. I also want to give you all like, you know, good coverage as well with the POVs. I want to make sure that we're able to give our full attention to whatever we're we're putting out at that time yeah it's a canon you know it's a full canon

yeah we don't want it's it's like a canon you can only load one cannonball at a time i mean i literally it actually works the sentiment is there but like that's not eliana that's not it that that was it that's how it works oh my god n-o-n yeah we look forward to hot d season very excited about dragons some of our friends over at learned hands have actually done a great trailer breakdown and we'll probably have tons more promotional material by the time this episode is published you guys actually yeah i'm glad we just went back to giving trailers for like release dates instead of, I don't know, melting blocks of ice. Don't encourage them to do anything new.

No, I think they learned their lesson. So. Hopefully. Hopefully. Well, let's jump into our lightning round in our penultimate Aria episode. And this is a dance with dragons episode there are new rules i'm just going to explain i've just made up new rules today for today's lightning round for this chapter it's in a dance with dragons we are past feast we finished feast

i'm going to break down the end of feast real quick with you eliana if you'll support me and we're just gonna do samwell and elaine from a feast for crows okay okay samwell four on the cinnamon wind two lovers embrace life in the face of death wow elaine two elaine is to wed harry the heir samwell five sam arrives at the citadel and that puts us into A Dance with Dragons, specifically pretty much the first half of the book that comes before this chapter we've been missing our Arya and specifically we're going to focus in on

Jon, Theon, and Bran's chapters and this is going to get a little crazy buckle up, Alyanna we're going to cover several chapters at a time so I'm going to start first with Jon 1 through Jon 9 and A Dance with Dragons. The most ambitious lightning round yet, critics are saying. With winter coming fast and strong, John works to broker peace between the Free Folk and the new self-declared King of Westeros, Stannis Baratheon.

Haunting visions from Melisandre's fire of a girl in grey on a dying horse turn out to be alice karstark and not aria we were so close you were so close uh bran one through three in a doida bran jojen mira and hodor arrive at the three-eyed crow's cave and a man who once went by the name brindan in another life oh interesting how it parallels with this bran continues to learn to control his power and shows us visions of the past through the eyes of a tree reek one through three the prince of winterfell the turn cloak a ghost in winterfell and theon one give me my goddamn bafta no Holy shit. Reek is not the only prisoner in his childhood home. Jane Poole's suffering at Ramsey's hands is grotesque, and Reek decides to take back his name,

with a little support from a wedding singer named Abel and his merry women. Theon and Jane take a leap to Faith. Wow. I just remember that you love the wedding singer. Oh, I love the wedding singer. Julia Guglia? Oh, no. Put it in my hands.

I love it. Adam Sandler singing on the microphone. Somebody kill me. Nothing's better than that this was an ambitious lightning round and i'm glad that you mix it up you know we've been doing this for fuck i don't know five to six years now and you just gotta you gotta keep things spicy in a relationship you gotta keep it new and exciting that's what chloe did here for us today everyone kept the spark kept the spark of the lightning round.

Exactly, exactly. And here we are now in Adowada, the blind girl. In Braavos, blind Beth, question mark, question mark, question mark, learns more than three things to bring back to the kindly man. She passes her next test and her eyesight is returned to her. Wow. Her nights were lit by distant stars and the shimmer of moonlight on snow. But every dawn she woke to darkness.

She opened her eyes and stared up blind at the black that shrouded her, her dream already fading. So beautiful. She licked her lips, remembering. The bleating of the sheep, the terror in the shepherd's eyes, the sound the dogs had made as she killed them one by one. The snarling of her pack. Game had become scarcer since the snows began to fall,

but last night they had feasted. Lamb and dog and mutton and the flesh of man. Some of her little gray cousins were afraid of men, even dead men, but not her. Meat was meat and men were prey. She was the night wolf, but only when she dreamed. Nice. What a banger.

What an amazing opening. Whoa. I guess like I think of Storm as the Arya wolf book, right? Like where you get her Nymeria dreams that open it, but I'm like, no, even in dance, Nymeria dreams are so present and they are metal. A lot to unpack in this one specifically. And I kind of love like Nymeria, something I picked up on that I maybe just brushed off last time. The shimmer of moonlight on snow. Oh, interesting. Okay. It's snowing in the Riverlands? I mean, you could really use Nymeria kind of as a map, interestingly enough. Like in A Storm of Swords 1, she's killing brave companions.

A Storm of Swords 12, she's dragging mom out of the river, so the Trident, I presume. A Feast for Crows 2, she's in a moonlit forest, could be anywhere. But now here, here she is somewhere where there's moonlight on snow, which it kind of makes sense if she's stalking near the Freylands, because that's close to the neck, right? Those are adjacent to the bogs, you know, where our reeds live up there, the crannogs. Yeah, so I don't know. Interesting to follow her around. And we have this line here that is wonderful of game had become scarcer since the snows began to fall. So the snows have started falling recently in the Riverlands. But last night they feasted lamb,

dog, mutton, and the flesh of man. Jamie Seven in Feast, we have snow in the riverlands right he tells us that it's snowing there it could be snowing on lannisport and on king's landing so snow is coming like the winter is going to be packed with snow is what i'm hearing everything's going to be fucking covered in snow even as far as raven tree snow ned snow even as far as raven tree, snow, Ned, snow. Even as far as raven tree, the ground was barren, muddy, and dotted here and there with drifts of melting snow from Jamie One, A Dance with Dragons. So, environmentally interesting. Of course, I've been rereading Dune as I won't shut up about. I'm about to start God Emperor, and I haven't finished Heretics. Heretics.

Heretics. I don't know. Whatever way you want to fucking pronounce it. I haven't finished thatetics. Heretics. Heretics. I don't know. Whatever way you want to fucking pronounce it. I haven't finished that or Chapter House yet. So, like, those are two I have not finished, but I know a lot about. But I've already read God Emperor, so this is just a fun reread. But Numeria eating human meat. This is very much like Bran and Varamyr of our chapters of before, right?

What we've seen of abomination, of eating the flesh of man through an animal. Just like in Dune, Arya of the knife here, right? Arya, the little odd short assassin, abomination. She is. Yeah, she's got three knives. Preborn. Yeah, interesting. I don't know what preborn means yet.

You will. You will. I assume I will and then you will know all of it all at once yes I just I just want to know man and worm okay that's I just that's all I care about the man bear pig worm and oh it's actually a really cool thing in the book you're gonna love it like it's not so jazz it's kind of weird but it's like it's done really well I'm jazzed I'm that's like my goal but anyway so yeah i'm gonna learn about pre-born monday i love what you called out about um you can use nymeria to kind of track what's going on and where she's

in the riverlands it kind of makes me think of coming back again to the pokemon games specifically gen 2 the three legendary dogs that are actually cats, if you really think about it, and how they go around the map and you just run into them in different places. That's what Nymeria is doing. Oh, I love them. Yeah, I do love them, actually. But it's also interesting that like, you know, Arya is just not, I mean, neither she nor Bran were taught the rules, right? They're children. It really shows how people kind of get taught these rules about society and this idea of abomination and childhood is kind of fascinating we have this line here as she's like getting ready and after she wakes up of she padded to her basin on small bear callous feet silent as a shadow this is like right

after her wolf dream and i love that the language just uses the word padded because i associate this with animals usually like walking on their paws like oh they padded along it isn't always used that way but it's an association to have and it really shows the blurring of the lines between aria and nymeria and just the animals in general as we'll see in this chapter i don't know just a lot of the language here in this opening especially, but also in this chapter in general, is just describing the sensations of everything right from the beginning. Like the softness of the mattress, the cool water,

silently walking, how her joints are all stiff, and also like, you know, rough spun tunic that's scratchy. She has to sniff her clothes to figure out if they're clean, which is not something that you need to be blind to do, let me tell you from experience. And also it just, you know, really shows how the other senses are becoming things that Arya notices more now that her sight is gone.

I love the sensory play. It's really sensory play. Like everything around her is, it feels warm or cold to the touch yeah uh which is being echoed coming to us that we've already heard a little bit from amen right having him as kind of a character of focus and a feast for crows so it's interesting to bring the blind focus to another character now that he's gone true yeah aria prepares for her day says her morning prayer which includes the names of people that she hopes to hunt and kill someday and she's like wait no that's not me that's the night wolf

blind beth is her new name but she won't be beth forever she knows her way to the kitchens but she could follow her nose if she needed oma made hot peppers and fried fish as well as fresh bread but her dream meat won't nourish her so she must have breakfast it's not actually the most important meal of the day that's a ploy by big breakfast no i'm not joking not kellogg's oh my god it's a big breakfast hot peppers and fried fish and fresh bread sounds great though i would be inma's kitchen. I thought Blind Beth was interesting for a name. We kind of get a little bit of background that she helped concoct the story last time, right? For Cat of the Canals. It's kind of almost implied that she helped concoct some

of her story here as well, which is very much mummery as we get to discuss later. But I thought that her connection with like the Riverlands and the old gods really stood out here because the name Beth is kind of a popular name, especially in the Riverlands and in Westeros. There are a lot of famous Beths or Bethanies or Bethas, right? Blam, blam. But there's Black Betha, right, who is a Blackwood, Aegon V's queen consort. And she was kind of considered spirited and willful, which is a great parallel to our Arya. They both had very, very strong spirits.

She was the one that arranged the marriages for her kids, and they all ignored them and were like, fuck you, mom. Those ones could have been any of the kids i guess there's a handful of nondescript that aren't really that related here right there's uh blushing bethany down at the happy port actually bethany hightower lord orman's daughter bethany redwine lord mathis rowan's wife there's also current bethany blackwood which is coming up in a dance with dragons and jamie the only daughter of titus blackwood which is coming up in A Dance with Dragons and Jamie, the only daughter of Tytos Blackwood, which is the one that Jonas Bracken is like, you should take her.

The father dotes on her. And Jamie instead takes the nerd Hoster. He's like, come with me, Hoss. Come on, nerd. Leave that daughter there. But she also would have been born around the same time as Arya. So it's interesting that she's kind of brought up in the next couple chapters with this blind Beth. And of course, there's

Bethany Bracken, Aegon IV's fifth mistress, who was basically groomed into the role solely to get Missy Blackwood away from him. There's Bethany Rosby, Walder Frey's sixth wife, and Bethany Riswell, Dom Eric's mom. Yeah, I

love that you've pointed out, out like this is very rooted in the riverlands right it's a common name there and aria's connections there but also like i guess she is in a way part of herself is in the riverlands right now and she's in a place that is full of kind of rivers right going through going through bravos it is its different own kind of riverland but there was something that like stood out to me also about beth and i was like wait i feel like this is a name that george is just into it's a name that features in bitter bitter blooms i think with um like the book of beth and shit like that and i don't know so yeah who's like he's definitely

into that name yeah it's interesting it's not a name that i like i guess i don't know that many best we know some right we've had some on this podcast yep so that's my favorite bath to be fair that's my number one i would say but i've got like a couple others i know you know a couple couple baths in the back pocket just in case but i ride with one yeah just one that's uh b word from. Yep, yep. And I love this line here of, like, the dream meat could not nourish her. And first of all, so George, the way that it's written. But also, it's a lesson that we, of course, all know from Bran's chapters. And also, as we discuss with Bran, there's something here with the dream meat could not nourish her that feels like a double

entendre right like for Bran it's very literal where he's like no I just want to eat this because all the food that I'm eating sucks right now Arya's Arya's eating good happy for her these are not worms whereas for Bran he's like we have nothing to eat. We have quote-unquote pork. But there's also this thing that we discuss in his chapters of needing to live in this world versus living through the trees, which is not truly being engaged with the people there, right? In the way that Bloodraven, he just watches them. He's not truly engaged in living that life. and this idea that the dreams are not real life and you see that recur with several characters throughout this series in very i think metaphorical ways as well right like we might have discussed this in written chapters but like

robert baratheon again living in his dreams and in the past he he has his dreams of like hey ned let's let's just go let's just leave it all behind and that's like no i live in the real world where i have responsibilities and i live here with the people that i love and robert doesn't do that and is surrounded by enemies he's just not fully present you have doran martell again living with his dreams of vengeance and then on on the other side of the stark family right now we got little finger He's not the Stark we're talking about. He's not a Stark, Jesus Christ. He's living in his fantasies. He's been living in his crazy-ass fantasies about Catelyn for years.

And now he's getting caught up in another one with his lies with Sansa who is remembering, as you called out a few chapters ago, she's like, I'm not really your daughter. You know that. Right? We're not connected. I love how that all ties into Aria with Needle, right?

And the memories that came to her when she had to dispose of her belongings. Oh, yeah. And we talked about it. And, like, that right there is life, right? Those memories and those people and living and doing right by them. And going home and taking back your home and being with the family that you had lost at one point, you know, and like making new memories and making new life. Are you even sailing off? That's a that's some that's living, dude.

That's L-I-V-I-N in the words of a, you know, philosopher. Dazed and confused, man. Tis the season. Tomorrow's 420. Tomorrow's 420. Yeah, but that's living. That's life. And dwelling in dreams. And dwelling inside of a tree. And watching years go by and centuries go by

if it means you get inches of pushing somebody into being a king. And I think a lot of Dune stuff kind of reflects on this too, of like a prophecy of like having a narrow path through that there's a prophecy that's going to happen and you're helpless to anything but that happening, right? Like, do you just let that happen? Or do you try to control your life? And do you live your life better than that? Do you let that narrate your life like Cersei does, right? She lets that prophecy absorb her. But do you let that absorb

you? Or do you just go live? Yeah, that's a that's a great. The prophecy is really interesting as it ties into this idea of dreams to definitely and this idea of like, because a lot of the prophecies we're seeing come through dreams in A Song of Ice and Fire. But also also i love that you tied it back to aria because in a way each of this these people that she's been each one feels like a dream to her right like that was i dreamt that girl who the fuck was she or like i dreamt aria even and but aria is the real thing something else that uh made me think of little finger also though was like when the kindly man's coming in because she's relying on her senses she's like he smells like oranges because he loves to use the rinds to sweeten his breath and it makes me think of Littlefinger also, though, was, like, when the kindly man's coming in, because she's relying on her senses, she's like, he smells like oranges, because he loves to use the rinds

to sweeten his breath, and it makes me think of, doesn't, like, Littlefinger do that with mint? Mm-hmm. Oh, that's interesting. And they're opposing colors, right? Orange and green are similar, like, they're just, like, vibrantly different colors when you think about it. Yeah, but the two...

Moon symbolism for them, moon and sun again, you know? Oh, true. I was thinking that they would go together in a fantastic drink or sorbet. I don't know about mint and orange. That sounds terrible because, like, when you brush your teeth and the way that orange hits it, that's why mint

I feel like goes a little better. I don't know, like blackberry, something sweeter. Okay, I was thinking, like, in the way that mojitos are awesome. And like if you do a mojito, but with an orange, it could rock. Maybe. Depends on your syrup. True. This is a whole other event.

Depends on the type of mint as well. Different kinds of mints feel more toothpaste-y than the other kinds. That's very true. Yeah. A sweet mint. Yeah, a sweet mint might be fine. Just don't use like spearmint or like peppermint. Then you're like playing with fire.

You heard it here first. We're a food podcast. Arya talks with the kindly man who offers her her eyes back, but she declines and he says, okay, what'd you learn on your recent begging trip down at the inn at the Green Eel? Arya tells him what she's learned. The Sea Lord is still sick and it is the opinion of the ingoers

that Tomo Frigar will be the new Sea Lord when the current one dies. Sivron, a sex worker, is with child and isn't certain of the father. It may be the Tyro she sells sword that she killed lol which is interesting interesting he says the kindly man's like yes okay good good this is the stuff i'm paying for here aria's like you're not paying at all and finally the merling queen has chosen a new mermaid to take place of the one that drowned she's the daughter of a pristine serving maid

13 penniless and lovely hmm okay sorry what you just said made me think like is the kindly man running a gossip blog and he's gossip girl he oh my god he is he is oh my god this is dan humphrey it's dan humphrey oh my god we did it kindly man kindly man lonely boy oh my god xoxo oh sorry we spoiled gossip girl for all of you it was uh just as disappointing of a reveal um i don't know actually it's been like 12 years yeah that's true more it's been like 14 years i don't even know i don't know anymore anyway been a long time i'm excited for the winds of winter um so the bravosi politics here are interesting to me as the free cities politics are always interesting to me in terms of the implications for the

upcoming wars especially as it's going to impact denarius's storyline and it's going to have other ramifications as well right like how is this going to impact the iron bank what are its connections and also the iron bank has been having a lot of dealings with different political figures in westeros lately so like what would the passing of one regime to the other like mean and then also like how will it impact again their relationship with Daenerys if she does come back through Braavos which she probably will or she might not I don't know but there's something going on there like there's some sort of tension between how the Braavosi might feel about a Targaryen dragon lord and also where does Tormo fall on all of these or even like Faragaw and who

are some of the other candidates right like what are the different like ways that things can go here we are also I think like isn't some stuff with like within the triarchy like some of that stuff is going awry as well and it could also be interesting because there's a lot of instability in the free cities right now with slave rebellions like rumbling and volantis and the three daughters and again like the different factions within tyrosh going on and also like the tattered prince is probably about to make a play for pento so so much going on in terms of like power vacuums and instability in the free cities what you've said is so interesting because this specifically so who we just referenced house pristine remember we kind of talked about

them last week like very briefly did you vaguely remember you were like who the fuck are these people i was like they're these people yeah well don't worry it's okay remember when the kindly man is like oh well i could get you on a ship to gold town dusk and down king's landing yeah that's luco prestain's ship lady bright okay and then the secret she learns and brings back is that lotho lornell sleeps in moredo prestain's home when their captain's away so now we have a third part that a poor serving girl has become the merlin queen's new mermaid so like i'm not spoiling in tiwa but we see another prestain in tiwa in mercy so we'll talk about that in our patreon episode but we're starting

to get little bits they're noble they have those big square towers on the west bank of the long canal that they're by like the palace of truth and the sweet water river so they're like a noble house so are we going to get in more with them is aria going to maybe talk to the prestain serving maid that's now the new mermaid or get some info on house prestain or something will she steal that girl's face and get into house Prestain? Oh, interesting. That's what I'm thinking here. Like, will she go kill that new girl, steal her face, and then get into House Prestain and, like, use that face

to be able to do something in there for the faceless men? I don't know. I think in general, like, she's going to be doing some stuff in regards to the noble families in the Free Cities, and I'll get back to that in a second.

The mermaid stuff kind of is an idea that captured me especially when the kindly man is like how do you know she's lovely right because you haven't seen her so what do you mean that she's lovely and everyone is saying that she is and it i think it really speaks to beauty as a societal construct because you have aria pondering her looks later on in this chapter. There's something going on here, especially when you put Arya's storyline against Brienne the Beauty's, right? And Brienne being called Brienne the Beauty. And I think it just really speaks to how beauty, it's not like this immutable or like physically innate thing. It lies elsewhere. Beauty is just as much and like being called lovely is just as much as part of a narrative as something else it's very emperor's new clothesy

right because society just sets the standard and says i don't know this thing's fucking in this season or this thing is in in terms of beauty for now or some or is it like beauty some other measure right should we be identifying beauty through something, I don't know, personality instead of this? And so, I don't know, the kindly man's got some very suspicious views on gender is all I'm saying. No, I'm joking. But am I? Yeah, he like, he's like, I'm not like, I don't know, he just hates all gender. He's like an allest, an allandrist. I don't know what it actually is called. He hates everyone equally. Maybe.

Especially women. Maybe. Or does he just like not care? I don't know. I mean, equally, but especially women. So not equally. Oh, God. Oh god. I do think something's interesting about the Merlin queen and her mermaid attendants, right? She chooses young maidens in the blush of their first flowering to hold her hair in veil and basically attend her, we learned in the last chapter. So this is the new mermaid to add to that group now that she's lost the one that drowned.

Jesus. We heard one drowned. That's kind of ironic. I guess it's supposed to be something we think ironic, isn't it? The mermaid drowns. Yeah. Anyway, go on. Sorry. I just feel like it's gonna come back. Something about the mermaid. Mm-hmm. Especially

something fun could happen there, too, because we got, what, the Merling symbol as well with House Manderly coming to the forefront of the story. I don't know what yet. Shit's popping. Yeah. I'm also, like, hoping that, what, you've all heard me gush about Free City's politics often throughout this podcast.

So, again, this is part of why i'm like hot day season two it's our like little bit of you know our little bit that gets us through give me the free cities politics um ryan condell tell us what george has told you ryan condell ryan condell was out there recently in an interview and this is a paraphrase i don't know what words he actually used so don't come at him or me ever but just putting that out there hashtag i don't know he said something along the lines of like george just spewing out t wow spoilers to him recently and i'm like so you should spew that out to me yeah chloe yeah personally mean, I guess you could argue that, what, to an extent was that Game of Thrones, but I would argue no. I would argue no. They were not the same.

George is like, you understand me. My only child, Ryan Condal, to quote Viserys on his deathbed. Anyway. Poor mysteries. Poor his fucking kids that he, like, forgot. Yeah, he did ignore them. That's fine. I would ignore my other two kids standing...

I forgot the other one's name for Ryan Condal. Looks down at hand. What's your name? Where I have it written, usually. Yeah, shit. No, yeah, we called that one egg and it was just easier yeah clearly yeah right i'm hype anyway please tune in to unleash the d everyone it's gonna be a good time i'm happy to be here for to unleash it all this this season i wasn't able to be here for all the

unleashing last time yes my special guest host eliana to be here for all the unleashing last time. Yes, my special guest host, Eliana, will be here for the whole season. Yeah, I got promoted. Maybe you'll be series regular next year. Oh, shit. Our executive producers are hard at

paw right now. Yeah, I'm negotiating. Yeah. Alright, we have a passage. Negotiate this fucking passage, Eliana. Alright, alright all right we have a passage negotiate this fucking passage eliana all right all right so we have this this passage between ari and the kindly man uh so are they all at the beginning but you cannot know that she is lovely unless you've seen her with your own eyes and you have none who are you child no one blind Beth, the beggar girl, is who I see. She is a wretched liar, that one. See to your duties, Valar Morghulis.

Valar Dohaeris. I'm using, like, my 30 Rock baby voice. I don't know why Ciri is responding. Ciri, is there something you're not telling me? About yourself? Sexy baby. sexy baby um there's the line in there about how it's snowing in westeros which we already know i talked about that earlier catch up everyone but she almost tells him that right and she pulls back because she doesn't want to bring attention to being aria stark versus being no one slash blind Beth. Yeah, yeah. But she's still clearly Arya Stark, and we can see that in the actions here.

So yeah, Arya doesn't share that she knows that it's snowing, and as she's doing that, she chews her lip. And as we were told last chapter, by the way, she's like, Arya Stark chews her lip when she's thinking. And so she's still doing that that's her towel that's it that was her towel like he said everybody has a towel and she was giving her towel that's great and there's something though in her holding it back right that feels like like the faceless men knowing that aa is a powerful warg and potentially a powerful skin changer seeing through the eyes of the cat for example um it seems like something they are looking to confirm about her maybe like this is a trial to confirm her powers and also it's kind of dangerous in the wrong people's hands like this is kind of an important secret to give away

telling someone that oh by the way I see through the eyes of an extinct magical creature and society treats you differently right we see that for john this entire book everybody like is kind of aware of him and he's like morgue dirty morgue what's up with you morgue yeah dog lover dog lover jesus christ how did he get there i don't know uh sounds weird in this context but uh stinky warg uh like something we talked about with maestro monthly in depth once so yeah uh yes so yeah i it's also like does she not tell them them? Because, I don't know, would they like it? On one hand, it could be really useful, but on the other hand, are they going to be like, yo, abomination? Yeah.

Yeah. Both. Well, it's better if someone else is being the abomination than them, right? That's true. I don't know. Like, I feel like it could be so useful. But they also are like, we don't want you too powerful. We want you humble.

That's a way to put it humble other there are other ways but we'll go with that pliant um yeah something about this chapter too with where it sits it's sandwiched by the chapter where Alice Karstark arrives at the wall and

Jane and Theon and Winterfell is right after this so it's kind of great that we have her just being absolutely no one in the middle of these two girls that are Arya in people's minds. That's a great point. That's fantastic construction composition by George. Yeah, his chapter composition and dance, I mean, it slaps. It does slap.

It does. It does. Even though you had to break it apart, like, it still slaps. Yeah, it's very cool. Beth takes her walking stick and her dishes and off she goes. Each night, the waif brings her a bitter cup of milk to keep her blind, and she would ask how long she must be blind. The waif would say,

Until darkness is as sweet to you as light, or until you ask us for your eyes, ask and you shall see. But Arya is tough, stubborn, and won't ask for her eyes back because she thinks that they'll send her away if she does which is probably very true so blind she will be the first day that she was blind the waif had guided her telling her to count the steps that she climbs let her fingers touch the wall learn invisible markings and things learn potions poisons through smell and touch. She became used to burnt fingers, blisters, and upset stomachs very quickly.

She starts to lose her barbaric accent, they call it, when she speaks Braavosi, but the kindly man pushes her to start to learn the tongues of Lys and Pentos and improve her high Valyrian. She plays the lying game with the waif, but it's much harder without being able to see, and it forces her to go off of tone and choice of words. Sometimes the waif lets her place her hands on her face in order to see as well. Bet that probably doesn't actually help that much, because by then her face would have changed. Anyway, so the tongues, the languages that Arya is learning still stands out to me.

I think I've pondered this before, right? Especially that she's learning the tongue and the pentoshi one and it makes me think again of like aria going to pentos and perhaps she would intersect with denarius's plot there and then hitches a ride back on on a boat from there probably but it might not just be pentos right like it absolutely could be lease i think there's like some things that point to lease like being part of the plot as well but i just find that these specific ones that they've prioritized very interesting along with hive valerian because you were talking about house pristine being a noble house in bravo so it's quite likely that with the activity between the free cities and most of the

other clientele like of the house of black and white i assume they're from the free cities and also i assume that their targets are also like in the free cities and also probably high level political assassinations i assume that this is a big part of just how politics works there. So High Valyrian is a tongue that would make sense for her to learn and again, might play into what you were saying about House Prostane. You got to know it to blend in. It's like spies, right? You look at high class spies and shit in thrillers and they go to different countries and they know many languages because they have to be able to blend in. And even if you don't know the language, there's other ways. I hear you started mystery mrs smith lately yeah i'm on episode three and i love it so far it's a blast it's really good everyone chloe and i i don't know if you'll

continue enjoying it but i've continued enjoying it i haven't finished the series the season yet but no spoilers but at the end of the last episode they failed a mission even though they were confident that they completed it even though they didn't do any of the things they were supposed to do and did it all wrong but they were like yeah we did it mission complete and the society texts back and they're like mission incomplete and they put a timer kind of um an old tomato they give them an old tomato basically yeah it's pretty it's pretty intense but also i just love my iris gang me too and donald glover i just love them both and their their chemistry is so interesting and fun in this show so anyways spies and stuff so coming back to the whole thing about

spies i i think like high level political assassinations also we know that aria is one of the few like faceless men who have been like assigned female at birth which i think is really dumb that they're gatekeeping this profession and that this is a weird profession to have gendered of all things and like have gender discrimination like i don't i don't understand why this profession of all of them anyway so the her verity and kind of would potentially make her very useful and i think it makes sense that they could potentially be training her to be able to work in different areas of society in lease and in pentos which could include know, being a slave in the pillow houses in Lys, which might be why she's learning that tongue. And Pentos, you know,

allegedly does not have slavery, but we know that in practice they basically do. And the other free cities, such as Tyrosh and Myr, like, they have industries that are a lot less dependent on the sex slave trade, so I think high valyrian would be perfectly fine to get by there and in most of the other free cities but if they're trying to have her work in multiple different like class areas and stuff in pentos and lease i think that's interesting i heard just the other day that there was a high profile politician or a profile politician that uh was discovered you know was basically banging somebody of another nationality that was a spy and i'm trying to find the story i don't even know who the people are i heard you've been passing and my husband told me actually or my

roommate whatever you want to call it sorry wow behind the emerald curtain everyone um but he told me i was like working and he told me the story but like apparently like she would say things to him in different languages and he'd respond to them or whatever and totally like blew his cover of like i think i think he was supposed to be a secret agent i don't know what he was but i don't know it was very interesting though total honeypot situation i could see them, training her to be a honeypot. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Or, like, not even getting, like, secrets. Just, like, it, I mean, if you need to get close to a target, believe it or not, sex is a good way to be very physically close to someone. This may be a surprise to everyone holy shit we give away all the secrets out well yeah so aria's entire jedi training sequence is difficult and next to impossible at first and she thinks she's gonna quit she thinks it's all over but then suddenly it all gets easier she learns to hear the lies to feel feel them coming out in the muscles of the mouths and eyes of people she starts to be able to navigate the temple easier and simple tasks have become perilous one dime she burns herself in the kitchen cuts herself has to sleep on the floor of the steps because she can't find her own room um And the kindly man really doesn't take this easy on her either.

He doesn't give her the easy ride. He tells her, use your senses. And so she does. She starts to know people by their scent, their sound, and their steps, even when she has to go and get the dead people from the alcoves. Yeah. A lot of things are perilous, like the stairs. Chloe knows about this. I have eyes that work, and I can perilous like the stairs chloe knows about yeah i have eyes that work and um i can't even do the stairs so i love that you said it was like the jedi training because i

had actually been like oh george having fun with like this daredevil training montage but you're right it actually does fit for the jedi one absolutely oh but i love that as daredevil training because it really is especially with what's about to happen true so yeah i don't know i think george is just having fun here he's like i've always wanted to write this superhero training montage myself oh and he got it he did he was like i'll just write my own story this morning she finds a handsome young face dead curly hair and wonders why someone so young would come to the temple she finds an older woman next who chose to die in an alcove where a special

candle portrayed visions of things loved and lost ah her body is warm still her skin is soft and aria follows the serving men who take the old woman down to the vaults she goes to work stripping the boots clothes and possessions from the dead emptying their purses counting the coins and now she's learning to recognize the coins by her fingertips brushing the faces this reminds me of my grandmother knowing the mahjong tile just by running her finger underneath anyways valentine coins are the most common good detail to know they are no bigger than a penny with a crown on one side and a skull on the other very edgy lysine coins are oval with a nude woman also edgy others have ships elephants and goats and westerosi coins have a king on one side a dragon on the other and she finds no money from the woman but this boy's purse has four golden dragons hmm interesting i uh i'm kind of like dragons. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting.

I, uh, I'm kind of like a lot of people have said they think it's Tyrak, right? That this is like the blonde curly hair. You have not heard this. Okay. So I think it's, I want to say this is from 2014 or 13 from user code of red is where I

first heard it on Reddit. It was when I was in my reddit girly pop era right i was like reddit theories top recent go people think it's tyrek uh the curly blonde well she doesn't know it's blonde but curly hair thick hair it's described similarly to his and that the candle burns red for like lannister red and that he's found with four gold dragons which is like kind of a decent chunk of money to have just chilling in your pocket to be in bravos with I don't know very interesting I don't know why that would matter especially if he was like spirited away by Varys and Illyrio or whatever for you know them collecting fake claims or real claims in this case I don't really know if there's a purpose but could be interesting

yeah I think he might not be I I just impartial to the theories of Varys and Illyrio spiriting away as you said Tyrek they got they got plans for him like they're gonna come bust him out and be like the babies are fake get tyrect and that's how i envisioned the winds of winter going i do think that like over with house eastermont we have edrick storm right there over the house eastermont so i could see that especially with location being a potential like oh oh, maybe they spirit him away. So that one kind of rings true, which makes me think maybe this one, too. I don't know. I like that one, too.

But it's a fun theory. But either of them are fun. Interesting. He does have very similar description just from like the handsomeness of his face and whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. He might be just a boy.

Just just a boy. Just a boy. So, a deep, harsh, and cold voice enters the room without warning, and Arya is attacked by the voice, but fights back with her stick. She doesn't know who the voice belongs to, but assumes it is an acolyte of the many-faced god, and the voice seems to be testing her abilities. She fights it and loses for a minute, but tries again. Bruised and dirty. Get back up, girl. But realizes the person with the voice seems to be testing her ability as she fights it and loses for a minute but tries again bruised and dirty get back up girl but realizes the person with the voice is gone so rude so embarrassing if she had her eyes though she's like i could have taken him and i'm like

that's not the point that's not the point of the exercise girl but i love the detail in which this fight scene is given because she hears the voice from her left and then learns to strike right with that which shows that she's learning how sound bounces off the walls and also that she doesn't talk when she's goaded or like taunted so she won't muffle the sound so yeah this is not just the first time that she's

embraced it but kind of one of Syrio's lesson oh yeah like one of his lessons right that he is she's like no but you said you were going to do this. And he's like, yeah, but I didn't. Ooh, yes, good call. Good call. Absolutely.

And it's interesting because it kind of gets this dichotomy going of Arya's character, Arya's hobbies here in Braavos, that she's being taught self-control and she's holding back. Like you said, she doesn't talk when she's goaded so she doesn't muffle the sounds she's being taught self-control and also kind of being taught to suppress who she is so it starts to kind of compartmentalize these two arias within her of no one in aria and it kind of is reflected in the difference in her kills right where darren she murders versus you know the inn with sandor versus kills that she's actually

supposed to do right she kind of is like i'm a different person when i kill these people i'm not no one i don't belong to you guys those deaths are mine kind of like her fourth secret i'm keeping this one for myself that's interesting i like that yeah which i guess they don't very much perhaps like about her i don't know we'll get to that secrets in a sec. Her independent streak. Yeah. Arya spends more time with the dead than the living these days. And she's starting to miss old Brusco and his daughters. She also misses Mary and her coworkers at happy port.

She misses being cat, but cat died when she killed Darren and she wasn't sorry. He was a deserter. She thinks. I'm not sorry. I'm he was a deserter she thinks i'm not sorry i'm not sorry deserter the kindly man didn't have the same take as her on this though by the way um he's like are you a god to make this decision and he turns to history reminding her the gift was only given to those who yearned for it in the beginning but one day a slave prayed for not only his own death, but also his master's. And the kindly man goes on to tell us a history lesson for the day.

And it seemed to our first brother that the sacrifice would be pleasing to him of many faces, so that night he granted the prayer. Then he went to the slave and said, You offered all you had for this man's death, but slaves have nothing but their lives. That is what the god desires of you. For the rest of your days on earth, you will serve him. And from that moment, we were two. You want to do this narration? His hand closed around her arm, gently but firmly. All men must die. We are but death's instruments not death himself when you slew the singer you took god's powers on yourself we kill men but we do not presume

to judge them do you understand no she thought yes she said i want to bring back a classic here because that last part had the energy of dog locust for all my homies out there missing Quentin. Classic. Dog locust. Quentin does like tie into these like when you were talking about that boy and being like, why would he kill himself like this? I thought of Quentin. So it's like, damn, why would that boy just rush into death like that you know sometimes that's all that there is or all that it feels like there is man yeah waiting for you yeah yeah i really worry about that boy quentin yeah i wonder how his surgery

has gone badly spent many years constructive he's dead skin grafts um i mean yeah so there's something in this that really stood out to me that again ties with brand storyline but also in general regarding power and isolation and godhood in the story like when you contrast it with the brand storyline right he's not becoming a servant of a god. He's like becoming the old gods themselves. We're like, oh, wow, the old gods are real. Oh, my God. This nine-year-old child, this boy, is going to become a god.

Okay. And Arya's starting to awaken kind of similar powers. Not exactly in the same way as the old gods, right? She's like not part of the tree. But similar powers when it comes to skin changing so she kind of becomes a self contradiction right as both a servant of a god and with the powers of the gods and there's something again we've discussed this throughout the series and we're to keep discussing it more we're not going to dive super deep into it here necessarily but about the relationship between power that characters hold when they are in high stations the power to be able to do things and to decide what happens to

other people and how that is likened to godhood, right? And how they become this judge and executioner and how they mete out justice. Like, do gods judge? Do they give justice? According to the faceless men, that is within the powers and the responsibility of a god. But do gods give mercy? Some would say yes, according to Wester westerosi theology yes one aspect of the god

does whereas here the servants are the ones who kind of carry out mercy if you will right that's what this whole fucking giant black and white two-tone temple is about and coming back again to that idea of power and being a leader and how it relates to Ned's lesson. And we even see it relate to Rob as well, right? This is something that is happening to a lot of members of Arya's family. But, you know, Ned's whole thing of, like, if you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. I said that really fast because, like, all of you know this line anyway aria aria here being told by the kindly man

like well i don't know dude like you're not supposed to judge you just fucking kill right but ned's thing is about judgment and like if cannot judge, if you are not taking that stance, then you don't kill. So they elect, they have elected the people that judge. If you get to kill, they have outsourced the work at the faceless men. It's whoever pays the most.

I think I'm wondering, is that, do they have a philosophy of like, only life can pay for death as opposed to only death can pay for life? Is what I'm wondering. Is that what the faceless men are about? Unsure. Ice and fire.

Yeah, I get you. Yes, yes. I don't know. The song of, I get it. It's ice, it's fire, it's opposite, it's same. I'm really excited for the winds of winter. So. I have no comment. I like what you said but no comment

the kindly man accuses aria of lying and says that she must walk in darkness until she sees the way she refuses to take her eyesight back she doesn't want to take the easy way out after dinner she heads out to do her begging. Her head is freshly shaved in a mummer's cut, which most mummers do so their wigs fit them better and to avoid fleas. The waif had given her pox scars, a mummer's mole, a shaved mummer's cut, leaving her ugly. She thinks of Arya Stark, who had also never cared about being pretty. Kind of comes back to some of what you were saying with those societal beauties and standards of beauty and uh there's some some interesting stuff here we'll talk about in our t-wow episode for sure but mummers cut and i will tell you it is easier the shorter and trimmer your

hair is for wigs way easier they sit correctly the longer your hair is, it does become trifling. Well, armed with a few blades, in case anyone decided to take advantage of the blind girl, she heads into the fogs of Braavos. I'm realizing now not just the mummer's cut, like whatever the waif is doing, she learned that in mummery school too. That's stage makeup. Yeah, the waif went to cosmetology school just like me. Yeah. I mean, I think that is, you do have to do cosmetology school to be part of the house of black and white it's literally yeah yeah it's all about changing your face you know that's what we learned but not i don't know it's making me think of that sailor j skit remember if the men find out we can change our face yes so hearing the acolytes of the cult of sorry wisdom singing to the evening stars

uh she also passes by the heat of the brassieres outside the house of the lord of light and we have this beautiful line chloe her nights were bathed in moonlight and filled with the songs of her pack with the taste of red meat torn off the bone with the warm familiar smells of her gray cousins only during the days she was alone and blind dog lover that's what chloe said yiff yiff good so though Arya looks completely alone She stays away from the waterfront As Kat was well known there

She's like I'm just not gonna risk it I'm not that girl anymore She's so like five years ago JK She knows each inn and tavern by its sense And she bags at a different place each night Last night she had bagged outside the green eel Tonight she's heading to Pinto's makes me think of pinto beans on the edge of the drowned town

pinto was a notorious pirate in the stepstones in his day to hear him tell it and he loved to share his exploits but she's in luck today the tavern is empty so she gets a great seat honestly i have to know like is he named pinto because of the nina the pinto santa maria i think you're right because i i was thinking beans because he does love beans yeah but no i don't know it could be that too it could be either and i love pinto beans so it could be either one of my favorite parts of the story is that beans sorry oh i also like black beans and i also like butter beans or cannellinis or um white kidneys oh my favorite i don't know if you would count it as garbanzo beans aka oh i love garb yeah i love chickpeas. Are they a bean? Are they a true bean? I mean, they're kind of legume-y. Legume-y.

They're a legume. They're a legume. Okay, okay. That's all. We'll work on it. We'll come back to it some other time. Yeah. So my favorite part of this chapter is that Arya sets up shop for the night to bag,

and a cat that is very familiar to her comes up and rubs against her and she's like oh the cat's not fooled by my disguise the cat remembers cat of the canal who I used to be um it's so cute so adorable and of course it's implied that like she's skin changing through the cats right that is definitely the implication under the chapter that she's kind of able to see through the cats here and there, whether she realizes it or not. And this specifically reminds me of that conversation with her in Syrio and to talk about some of the politics, right? Of the Sea Lord's cat, right?

And how you can't learn to see without taking your sight away. And that was kind of what he was teaching her in a Game of Thrones. And here she's actually executing it to what he probably really meant, right? Being able to see if a cat's an ordinary cat or not, right? What he tells her in a Game of Thrones is that everyone expected a fabulous beast. So that's what they saw. They would say how large it is is it's no larger than any other cat only fat for a mendolyn's um so very interesting he had told her opening your eyes is all that is needing the heart lies in the head plays tricks with us but the eyes see true look with your eyes hear with your ears taste with your mouth smell with your nose feel with your skin

then comes the thinking afterward and in that way knowing the truth so that's kind of what aria is doing definitely skin changing the cats right there's that um line for a time it seems she could see them too through the slitted yellow eyes of the tomcat purring in her lap uh so aria has literally mastered sirrio's lesson. Yeah, I love that. I forgot about this lesson and how it ties to it. Now I'm kind of like, is this the same Sea Lord that we're hearing rumors about? I'm wondering if this is his cat. Yeah. And like, I don't know, is he playing silly tricks again? And I mean, it also speaks to like, how do you know that girl is lovely, right?

Because everyone's like, wow, this cat was fucking amazing. And he's like, that was an ordinary cat. Yeah. But if everyone says it's a lovely cat, it's a lovely cat. And all cats are lovely, first of all. I'm just thinking she probably still smells like seafood, even though she took a bath by now. Oh, true. Actually, maybe.

Oh, well, no, she definitely does, because she had sardines for breakfast oh yeah she had the fried fishes fish for breakfast so yeah oh and i i don't know i love that ari is like you remember me yes yes they do oh oh but what will it be like if nymeria remembers her. Interesting. That's not you. Interesting. Not anymore. Oh my god, I don't even understand the usage of that line there still. Anyways.

It's supposed to connect to her overall ending, it's just they, you know, didn't write anything good. Yeah, they did a bad job. Anyways. Ryan Condal, my only child. The chosen one it's a pretty good night of begging for the girl Pinto even gives her a cup of wine a chunk of stinky cheese, nice

and half an eel pie, very nice he then sits down to boast of his exploits and several hours later the tavern picks up some speed and his patrons give her some coins dang, not a bad gig she overhears the lysini sailors oh look this is great that they know she knows lysini now talking about slave ships seized by the sea lord's guards the slaves were wildlings from hard home a curse and place she remembers the stories that old nan told them back in winterfell about it the lysini

pirates had taken the women and children from Hardhome to sell as slaves and lease. But one of the ships, the Goodheart, was damaged and seized in Braavos because, uh, it fucking had slaves and they are just not about that there. The prices of slaves were rising, she hears, and more ships may come with thousands more women and children at Hardhome. Arya comes back and tells everything she learned to the kindly man that night, at least three of the things she learned. He asks her for her third bit of knowledge, which she reveals, and she says, very sneakily, she knows that it's the kindly man that's hitting her randomly throughout the building. She smacks her stick out and hits his hand,

and the student becomes the master. He asks her, how did you know? And she tells him, I saw you and I gave you three. I don't need to give you four. Oh, okay. Whoa. For all those people out there saying that she's eight, she's nine, she's 10. I'm 11. So shut the fuck up.

That was literally what happened. Yeah. She thinks I saw you. She doesn't say it because I can't tip your hand too much. Great. This is where we get that notification in the story about what happened to the people at Hardhome. It's terrible.

They've been trafficked. They're being sold. In lease. It's fucked up. I'm like, damn, how could you do this to mother mole and her people also sidebar i was playing ck3 agot this week and i have to tell you that agon the sick agon the fifth married mother mole and had a kid with her and i'm like is this gonna be the savior yeah she's really hot too really hot oh okay in universe back to back to this game

of thrones wow i love that Arya pushes back at him here. She's giving him what he wants and no more. And she's learning to play the game here with him, right? And her dual life. She's doing what Arya Stark wants and what the Faceless Men want. Keeping something for herself. Keeping the hope and the dream alive in her heart. And keeping that idea of winterfell alive in her

heart right i love that what you're saying here about something for herself i think like the things that she keeps secret the things that you keep for yourself that's kind of like to an extent part of what makes you who you are you know like the things that are separate and just yours yeah the things you keep for yourself like how you and i keep things for ourselves yeah like the pov order or suckers or i mean like you know that's why it's so violating when the skin changing happens right or how brand tries to like explore even the caverns of hodor's mind and hodor's like no um i'm gonna just hide in this corner so things like that absolutely yeah she's like i'm done with your workplace harassment and to celebrate that that evening umma served salt crusted crabs for supper when her cup was presented to her

the blind girl wrinkled her nose and drank it down in three long gulps. Then she gasped and dropped the cup. Her tongue was on fire, and when she gulped a cup of wine, the flames spread down her throat and up her nose. Wine will not help, and water will just fan the flames, the waif told her. Eat this. A heel of bread was pressed into her hand. The girl stuffed it in her mouth chewed swallowed it helped a second chunk helped more and come the morning when the night wolf left her

and she opened her eyes she saw a tallow candle burning where no candle had been the night before its uncertain flame swaying back and forth like a whore at the happy port. She had never seen anything so beautiful. Damn. Give me the crabs, but also, like, this tip about the bread and starches and stuff for spicy food, assuming this is spicy, that's fucking real. That's, like, a legit good job wave. Yeah. Like, creme-based and bread, the only things that help.

Yep. Well, sometimes they'll give you, like, what? Some other, like, Southeast Asian restaurants will give you, like, cucumber or, what is it? Like, cabbage as well. Like, these sweet-ish veggies to help with it, too. Which I think is, or I guess they're starchy, maybe. Maybe that's why. I don't know.

Leafy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Legit. The crabs do sound good. Two concepts for the Nightwolf. First concept, always sunny in Philadelphia. Nightman cometh, but it's Nightwolf cometh.

The Nightwolf. Nightwolf. I need to get back into that show. Oh my God. Dayman, Nightman. One of the best musicals of all time happened with that song from it. I'll have to watch. You can get back into it.

Yeah, so that we can incorporate that as inspiration for the musical. Trust me, that's going to be the trident. Don't worry. Dayman and Nightman fighting is literally the trident with Robert and Riker. Okay, okay. Dayman. Um, David. And then my other thing I have to propose for workshopping is Nightwolf, except being sung to the tune of Night Shift by Lucy Dacus. Okay, I haven't listened to it yet. I'm not hip enough. Oh, um, basically the bridge and on it's like, you work a nine to five and I'll work the night shift.

Except like, you work a nine to five, i'm the night wolf um okay okay you know these are my two workshopables i'm putting them out there we'll come back to them maybe never uh hopefully that resonates for someone listening i mean any of you listening maybe one of those will resonate something on a slightly more serious note. I love this idea of like the cosmogony kind of creation myth with the light and like seeing the light for the first time again after having your, your eyesight taken away from you. It's kind of described, you know, as creationism and cosmogony is from cosmos meaning order, genesis meaning birth. So like sometimes the birth of identity, the birth of consciousness, the spark, dust, for those of you that like his dark materials. And there's even a lot of like, especially with the House of Black and White, there's light and dark yin and yang, right? A little bitiod's theogony where in the poem there's a lot of description of creation of the different worlds and gods and mankind and a lot of different mythology having light be the ultimate sign of creation, happiness, and hope. And like

Arya's eyes coming back to life, her getting to see that flame and embracing how sweet the fire was. Especially with the Dance with Dragons, which to me feels like there's a lot of fire going on, obviously, with Melisandre at the wall and Dany and Drogon. Lots of fire in these chapters. Yeah, I love that.

And like, because fire is representing even knowledge, right? Like, she's got some new ass knowledge right now. Not just from her training, but also from her training, you know, both. Yeah, very Prometheus, right? Exactly. But also, I love what you're saying about it as, like, tying into creation myths as well, because, I mean, it is kind of even tied to a lot of the creation myths that they have within this world. And their stories about the Long Night, And we're going to be seeing. Like those kinds of things play out again. That's great.

A lot of the mythology of A Song of Ice and Fire. And some of those like characters. That rise up as golden age heroes. For example through the ages. I don't know there's something really cool. About the monomythic nature going on. And this is like a big moment for Arya. Like goes blind.

Becomes unblind. I guess that for aria like goes blind becomes unblind i guess that would be a bigger becomes unblind sorry gets her sight back would be maybe more appropriate there's a lot of you know i think the first thing i think of is rapunzel losing her eyesight which is not quite i don't feel it quite fits in here but that's the first piece of folklore I think of and yeah there's a bunch of other you know like Oedipus right Oedipus blinding himself

yeah yeah yeah there are a lot of different blind figures characters in the Hebrew Bible Tiresias Samson right he shows up figures, characters in the Hebrew Bible. Tiresias. Samson,

right? Does he go blind too? He shows up in the Hebrew scriptures, he does. In the Hebrew Bible. Yeah, he's captured by the Philistines and they put out his eyes and then there's a great religious festival and he's brought to the temple and for the entertainment

of the Philistines that are assembled there, but then to aven temple and for the entertainment of the philistines that are assembled there but then to avenge himself for the loss of his eyes he like topples their pillars and brings down the roof and kills himself and everyone within yeah i remember that part he's like even though my hair was cut and i've like really shamed you god let's fucking do it let's fucking rock these people and yeah jesus heals a bunch of the blind in the bible a bunch right like I think in Mark and John yeah so I guess it's not the opposite

of no like that still fits in with Arya's story just the opposite of Samson's yeah okay I have a question and you let me know what you think because I have wondered this constantly. If the point like, yeah, it's badass that through all this she learned to see through the cat's eyes to skin change other animals that are not Nymeria and to kind of do it at will-ish.

but if the point of the training is to teach you to be so good at using your senses and navigating the world while blind like if you use this and to just heighten your other senses like did aria actually pass her blindness exam or did she cheat by using the cats like is she not as good now of at whatever skill she was supposed to learn because she shortcutted using the cats instead of actually learning what she needed to learn through blindness. I don't know, because I feel like it's a test. It's definitely a test. Yeah, I feel like it's a test for her specifically that they wanted to see what happened

and if she would be able to make it or not. Interesting. I just feel like there's no way at this point that they don't know that she has powers or that she's like maybe perceptible to having powers or is showing onset signs of magic and who's to say they don't scout for that right like who's to say they aren't looking all over for people that have some sort of open perception to that? And they're trying to, like, trigger it in the way that, like, was Bloodraven maybe trying to, you know, make trigger events to cause people to be like, hey, what if you had a near-death event and would that awaken something in you, little boy? Yeah, actually, though.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe he was doing that with Euron and he's like wow that was a mistake we're not doing that strategy again well and to your points they are looking for how they want to be able to train her for job placement and where they see her best fitting so to me I feel like this might have been a test and it was different than the test that's given always to other people but I also think that they want to I didn't yeah i think that it's it's similar to some of the savior mongering that's going on right where everyone's choosing their savior right now in the book everyone's like so and so's my

is or a high like maybe they're looking for their next tool oh they absolutely are for sure which is like magical tool yeah which is why it's interesting that they were like all right you get to go into the next phase of training now that you've done the thing that we're like maybe you shouldn't do that by killing this guy but i think they were just like wow she's just so good at killing let's just level her up whatever fuck it yeah it seems very like fighting and contrasting things like they're saying like in their head they're like well we must tell you it's bad but then out loud they're like you're promoted kid here's your eyesight back and i also feel that this chapter does span a lot of time uh because these chapters are so few and far in

between george definitely has a little bit of time happening in between them right like you're supposed to be thinking she's been doing this for a while so do keep that in mind you know like she has been doing this for a little bit it's a montage i think that she's definitely grinded enough to get good at it whether she's cheating or not it is grinding oh my god yeah she i think she has enough xp to get to the next level you know i think she hit a couple multipliers bro she was close she was probably gonna get it the next night anyway i mean she was striking the kindly man after that and turns out all you had to do to level up was just tell him hey i know it's you bro quit it you don't have to like actually beat him in a fight you just have to tell him i know it's you and and i mean do you think that she skin changed to find

out that it was him or did she find that out herself that's the bigger question yeah maybe i mean maybe she like that's what she said she did so i don't know i mean like the cat thing like kind of does make up for losing your sight if you lost all your senses you know like that's just like new sense unlocked entirely so that. I guess. I don't know. It's like something I've wrestled with for a while. I was like, she cheated. She cheated on her blindness exam. So. Until this moment when we hash it out.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm kind of like it's over next week? This is rough? I can't believe that it's over. We tried to draw it out by putting out the mystery night so we hope you all enjoyed that a couple weeks ago but yeah it's over aria's over and then we go on to a brand new pov which you don't know uh we'll tell you next week so that's exciting

so you can find out how wrong you all were with all your guesses yeah that's that's what we're doing that's how it works and i don't know i'm sad about being done with the aria chapters i was looking forward to these for a long time and now they're over i think we really acted like they were going to take a lot longer i really thought that they were especially because we dropped from doing two chapters per episode down to one so i was like there's a lot of fucking aria chapters but guess not guess not a lie as they as a kindly man would say oh sorry quick thing and we talk about them as cults it's interesting they keep calling him priest way more this chapter too as you get deeper into the cult you get to um learn higher up ranking members names you know and roles oh yeah interesting just like in corporate same thing it's a cult too

also also true all right with that eliana where can everyone join our cult at? Yeah, if you would like to follow our teachings, you can at twitter.com slash girlsgonecanon, C-A-N-O-N. Or if you would like to send us some of your thoughts on, I don't know, the cult, you can send it to girlsgonecanon at gmail.com. And of course, every episode we do is sponsored by our patrons they are the fucking shit we would not do these episodes without them patreon.com slash girls gone canon and they're gonna tell you where else you can subscribe and listen to us on the internet you can catch girls gone canon on any of the following streamers. On Podbean, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Acast, Spotify, Overcast, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Audible, and Amazon Podcasts. You can also join us on Patreon, where if you join the Thunder tier above,

you have access to a Discord and monthly happy hours and things like that and by joining the discord you get access to a bunch of great channels including but not limited to memes and posting channel fashion hour there are multiple channels for historic materials a song of ice and fire there's a pets channel which i think is probably the most important channel of all respectful thirsting because there's a channel for that come by join the community it's a lot of fun and you won't regret it thanks for joining us this week I have been one of your hosts Chloe and I have been another one of your hosts, Eliana. Goodbye. Goodbye.

I didn't have anything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was out. Are you ready for it to be over? Are you ready? No, I'm not. I'm just not.

Bye. Goodbye.